Seymour Duncan Tapped Quarter Pound: What Kind of Sorcery is This?!

[Brum]

Hi all!

Noticed something today that I can't wrap my head around. So, here's my first post on the forum!

One of my guitars is equipped with a Seymour Duncan SSL-4T. Something about the direction in which the copper wire runs baffles me. I've successfully wound some tapped single coils myself by taking the finish of the inner coil, and using it as the start of the outer coil. Both coils are wound clockwise. This should give you a pickup that looks like the bottom one in the image. However, my SSL-4T looks like the top one, with the copper wire from the finish of the inner coil and the start of the outer coil (which share the 'tap' eyelet) lying parallel with each other.

I can't for the life of me figure out how they did this. Judging from the way the start, inner finish, and outer finish copper wires are oriented, I can only conclude that this pickup is wound clockwise (looking from the top), the same as mine. However, that should result in a pickup that looks like the one on the bottom in the image, right? Am I missing something here? I'd love to get your thoughts!

[big_teee]

SD advertises that the bottom coil going one direction, and the top coil going the other direction?
Creates a humbucker effect.
Looks to me, like it would cancel out?
Someone here, needs to do some extensive testing to see how that works, and report back.
Also when you make the magnets larger in diameter (1/4 inch is huge in a strat single coil}, you end up with less winding area.
That would make a need, to use smaller guage wire, as in 43, or 44.
GL,
T

[Helmholtz]

If full coil output is larger than tapped coil output, both parts of the coil must produce in-phase signals.
So both coil sections are either wound with the same direction or if the outer section is actually reverse wound, start and finish of this section must be reversed as well to get the signal in-phase again.

[Brum]

Thanks for your replies!

Well, this pickup doesn't buck any hum, that's for sure. The full coil is louder than the tapped coil, and that includes the hum. I can't find any information that suggests the inner and outer coil are wound in different directions.

The answer is probably a lot less complicated. I've seen people who make tapped single coils affix the outer coil start wire with some glue in order to keep it out of the way of the hole where the lead wires pass through. Maybe that's what SD does too?